The Delhi High Court on Friday held that Congress and theBJP had “prima facie” violated provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and directed the Central government and Election Commission to probe their funding receipts within six months.

“We have no hesitation in arriving at the view that prima-facie the acts of the respondents interse, as highlighted in the present petition, clearly fall foul of the ban imposed under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 as the donations accepted by the political parties from Sterlite and Sesa accrue from ‘Foreign Sources’ within the meaning of law,” the court held.

The judgment was given on a PIL filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) last year, seeking action against the two parties for allegedly violating foreign funding norms and illegally receiving contributions from government owned companies.

The Bench held that Vedanta and its subsidiaries would be considered “foreign companies” since Vedanta is a company incorporated outside India. The government has been directed to “re-look and reappraise the receipts of the political parties and would identify foreign contributions received by foreign sources as per law” and to “take action as contemplated by law”.